hey need OOT's opinion on something. I was wondering the other day what the world would look like if free energy was invented. So basicly all transport and energy manufacturing costs would be go close to zero. This would have huge impacts of costs of alot of products and services right? Would make living on our planet much much cheaper, would probably solve the food problems all over the world. people would have to work way less because everything is now cheap as hell. What would life look like? what would people do all day if theres no jobs and everyone can work maybe 15 hour workweeks or something, how would politics look like?

oh and mods pls fix my spelling error in title

This could be interesting.

As a guy who works in the energy sector my first thought is that myself and millions of my colleagues would have to find new jobs.

sounds a lot like east germany in the 1970s. boom times.

Everything becomes a lot cheaper and most importantly a lot that was not practical before becomes relevant and available and you say welcome to the scientific society instantly.

Capitalism collapses in a very cheap energy society. YES! Money becomes less relevant as in order to attain happiness and safety for avg person the cost is a lot less now.

Of course this is why they are not going after fusion with the super moronic impunity that they went after Iraq or Afghanistan (what a joke of many trillions that would have solved energy problem and yielded middle east oil irrelevant). Apparently it doesnt serve well the top 1% that has 40% of the wealth of the country to chase such developments. Milking the bottom 80% by the top 20% seems like the way to go. Instead of tripling the wealth of all classes (something the vast energy facilitates) its better to keep it tight and exploit the weak until they revolt and there is mayhem. Very smart.

Energy is everything. All you have to do is plot energy usage of humans as function of time and parallel plotting of any metric of progress you wish to spot the connection.

Of course nothing is free but we will eventually get to amazingly cheap energy if we let science design our priorities instead of money centers, corrupt politicians and idiotic masses.

just a note:

read this, forget about cheep energy ASAP

http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/...ets-physicist/

There wouldn't be any jobs left. I think this is the point

Unofrtunately I suspect this won't happen in our lifetime...

Sure there would be jobs. Energy can't deliver the mail or fix power lines or check you out at the grocery store.

You have an irrationally idealistic view of the world.

The only way energy will be amazingly cheap is if the owners/creators of this "energy" are willing to sell it for "amazingly cheap." We already have "somewhat cheap energy" with fossil fuels. Tomorrow morning Exxon could start selling gasoline at <$1/gallon and still break even but since there is demand for gasoline they would obviously rather charge the market price.

Let's say scientists at GE make a create "energy" out of thin air machine that makes 1 million units of this "energy" for only $1/day. They aren't going to sell it for "amazingly cheap" only looking to recoup their costs. They are going to charge as much as the market will allow them to charge and try to profit as much as they can off of the technology. It all depends on demand.

ok lets go a step further, 200 years in the future, and stuff like fixing power lines and cashier work can now be done by a robot that requires almost no cost of running once bought. so pretty much no jobs left, what will people do in this fully automated world? And then we can add genetic manipulation, where maybe our brains can be enhanced and everyone has a genius iq. i find the possibilities and ways technology is going to make life look so drastically different a few hundred or thousand years down the line pretty fascinating.

Will there be a science of spirituality/supernatural do you think?

There isn't enough information in the OP to really model it; just because scientists can create energy doesn't necessarily mean they can utilize it.

If it was fully utilized, whoever had a monopoly on such technology would be able to conquer the world, and their way of life would be imposed on them. There's not many limitations to what can be done with such a ability, it really depends on the ruling government.

I think the spirit of the OP is that it is utilizable, and that it is not monopolized.

one thing that came to mind is a greater presence in space. with no energy costs, you could build all the space parts on earth and shoot em up at a much lower cost and assemble in space.

...and thus avoid earth heating up like that snooty physicist claimed?!

Most people will just get high and watch TV or play in the holodeck all day. But for every 10,000 hedonists there will be a new Isaac Newton or a Darwin. Most famous scientists were born into the aristocratic leisure class. Instead of working all day they had time to think and contribute far more to humanity then millions making widgets 40 hours a week.

I see no one clicked the link.

In essence do to the law of thermodynamic and link to growth of the economy and energy usage that are around 2.3% yearly Earth will reach boiling point around 400 years from now because it can't cool itself so fast. Naturally around 6 point increase on average temperature will be enough to wipe us out (more or less). Free energy would just speed up this process so fast as we are currently wasting energy on stupid things like TV or holodeck in future.

If you look back, energy is incredibly inexpensive now compared to in the past. Someone from 3000 years ago or even 300 years ago would essentially call our energy free. That is how we can go from LA to NY in 5 hours for the equivalent of <1 week's pay (work) for the average person.

So basically that is why we don't have people digging ditches or plowing fields or carrying water (in developed world). Instead mostly we're sitting at desks, operating machinery, etc.

We (or a significant portion of us) are able to work on what would be considered frivolous industries at any time in the past - sports, games, entertainment, tourism, sophisticated health care, etc. Not to mention our free time.

Extrapolate that concept out and try to imagine very few people (or very little of our resources) put into "necessities" - the rest of us basically entertaining each other and pushing the limit further.

oh so he meant after the inevitable imperialistic world war?

That assumes that energy usage will have to grow at the rate of the economy. Or at least it did in that discussion.

Or that we couldn't just build huge refrigerators and keep the doors open

Interesting link Rikers

Sure it presumes that, which won't happen as it'll decline somewhat as it's growing, but the points are still valid

I want to know what you were thinking when you made the OP. There are some things you can't hide. I want to know what you were feeling. Tell me what was on your mind.

Was an interesting read, thanks for posting.

I find this fascinating as well and have been thinking along those lines before: there seems to be no a priori reason why human life should be consisting mainly of "working a job" (as in, nowadays, your job seems to be the main identifier on an individual) and I believe a better world would (maybe even the "perfect" world in the sense that this is what we should be striving for) be one where nobody had to work and was thus free to do whatever they felt like - obviously some people would play Playstation X all day, but I think a lot of people would use their life to think (philosophise on what interests you), which would be a better life than what we lead now, I believe.

What you are describing is a society that is without defined class structure as well as no clear distinction of intelligence between the priveledged and non. I don't really belief, personally that this is feasible as elites like maintaining their "competitive" edge over the common man and without clear distinctions of superiority that would be lost. i.e. people in power don't liking giving others what they have aquired for cheap or even free in some cases.

As to your other point. What kind of jobs will be doing? I believe as the "elites" in some capacity continue to dictate the need for jobs to be occupied, to in a way distract the masses from challenging their authority. The market will likely dictate as some jobs go obsolete (energy based jobs) other jobs will be created to fill the void left. These jobs will be determined to be a necessity to society.... I also think jobs that we see right now of figuratively digging holes and filling them will remain in some capacity.

the thing is our brain is not 'designed' to do nothing all day. People would go insane. I have periods where i do nothing and i feel miserable, but maybe that is just me. You gotta have something to occupy your mind, if you dont you start thinking about all kinds of crazy and stupid **** and you get depressed. So in the end peole will do something, but i just wonder what that would be. I guess there will be lots more artists, maybe someone will invent some drug that you can do forever and not damage your brain and everyone will just sit around and be high all day or something.

Oh and lets say this free energy thing gets through, and people have more time to think and to educate themselves, they wont be as easily manipulated by politicians and the elite will gradually lose its power. Now there is fox news and silly arguments about gay marriages to distract the masses. And guys like ron paul just get plain ignored and few people somehow seem to be bothered by that. And i guess when people can genetically alter their brain in lots of ways and be smarter they will get along better because they are more understanding.
On the other hand, doing nothing all day will lead to get people to get into alot more arguments about stupid ****, because of all the time they have.

yea but if you look at the last 500 years, they are gradually having to give away power right?

They have in a sense but in other ways things have not changed. It's true they don't go about demonstrating their power as openly as has been seen in the past i.e. monarchs of the past. That was very heavy handed and would not work within the globalized world we live in were everyone is connected. I feel just like anything "elites" have evolved in a sense to realize that they can control the masses in a more passive approach while still achieving the same results. Thereby allowing the people what they want "sense of freedom/democracy" while still allowing them to not be challenged. I feel as long as people value security over their individual rights. The rich can create a sense of fear within the general public allowing them to have an even bigger microscope on our lives. Examples of this are the wiring taping act that was imposed after 9/11.